Watching Midnight
by chameleonwho3
Summary: The Doctor takes Rose to Woman Wept after her dad, Pete, dies, so that she can be distracted for a little while.


**Author's Note:** Rose tells Mickey about the planet Woman Wept at one point and I got inspired by that... please review!

**Disclaimer:**I don't own anything in the Whoniverse.

Watching Midnight

"Rose wake up! I know the perfect place to go today!" She opened her eyes to see the Doctor bubbling over with excitement next to her bed. Why was he in here? And from what it looked like, he had been sitting there for most of the night, there was a slight indent on her covers from where his head rested for an hour or so. Again Rose wondered why he had sat with her. Then she remembered the day before. She had seen her father die. Twice. She pulled the covers over her face as she felt the tears welling up, she couldn't let him see her like this.

"Where?" came her muffled response. She felt him sit on the edge of her pink comforter and she could imagine the gleam in his eye as he said,

"Oh… you'll see…" she could tell that he was grinning that dorky grin of his as he pulled the duvet away from her face. "Come on! Get up!" She moaned as she pulled the blanket back over her face. "Fine! Then don't come out and see the giant frozen waves!" That got her attention. She sat up immediately and gave him a questioning look.

"What d'you mean "giant frozen waves"?" she asked. He just grinned and repeated what he had said before,

"You'll see!" and with that he grabbed her hand and dragged her to the kitchen. "Come on! The faster you eat the sooner we can go!" Rose had never seen the Doctor so wound up before, he was practically jumping up and down.

"Exactly what time is it?" she asked him, she noticed that the TARDIS seemed sleepy and wasn't exactly happy that they were back up.

"Oh… um… well about two, three in the morning Earth time and about 11:30 on this planet." He replied, remembering that humans needed more sleep then Time Lords. Rose gave him a look that was not very happy. It would almost have been angry, if she had been fully awake. "Hurry up! Come on, the planet's fantastic!" Rose moaned and grudgingly shoveled some weird banana cereal thing into her mouth. As soon as her bowl was empty she was being dragged back to her room. "Go on, get dressed!" the Doctor said shoving her in, he was really anxious to show her something, but Rose didn't know what.

"You are not coming in!" she said shaking her finger as he started to step in. He had a confused expression on his face, clearly not understanding anything about privacy.

"Why? Why can't I come in?" he asked. Rose sighed in frustration, the Doctor was clueless.

"'Cos I'm getting' dressed!" she said nodding her head for emphasis, "I'm not going to get dressed in front of you." She said blushing.

"Why not? What's so weird about getting changed in front of other people?" he asked, and then the realization hit him, "Oh… I forgot… it's always awkward for you lot, I'll never understand it." He said turning his back to her room. Rose sighed again, couldn't he just wait outside? She quickly pulled out a pair of jeans and a pale pink t-shirt and decided she would change in her closet.

When she came out the Doctor was sitting, holding a picture in his hands, it seemed he had been doodling while he had been waiting. But before she could get a proper look at it, the Doctor whipped around and shoved into his coat.

"You ready then? Took you long enough." He said, some of the energy gone from his voice. Rose just looked at him trying to figure out all the emotions that were inside him, but she couldn't decipher anything. She nodded and looked expectantly. "Oh, you'll be needin' a jacket." He said after a moment, so she rummaged through her closet and pulled out her parka. "Good. Now to the console!" the energy had returned to his voice. He grabbed her hand again and off they ran.

"So where we goin'?" Rose asked the obvious question, knowing that the Doctor would either say, "You'll see" or just stay silent, but her surprised her,

"Look outside." He told her, and she did so. She flung open the doors, expecting be on some small little planet that where inhabited by who knows what, but what she saw made her gasp, "Isn't it just fantastic?" the Doctor asked in his Northern accent. She just nodded, the words wouldn't come out as she stared down at the planet they were orbiting. It had only one continent, and that continent was shaped like a woman who was bent over crying. The pale blue piece of land was surrounded by an icy white ocean, it looked a bit like mother of pearl, but with great big ripples all over it. Rose seeped in the sight, entranced. It was almost impossible to stop looking at it. When she finally blinked and looked at the Doctor, who was smiling, clearly amused by her behavior. "Come on, let's go explore." He said as he flipped a switch, rolled a wheel, hit another switch, and pumped handle.

Rose smiled as he took her hand and pulled her to the door. She couldn't wait to see what it was like on the surface of the planet. The Doctor stopped abruptly, just as he was about to step out with Rose right behind him and let go of her hand. She was confused and a bit annoyed, she wanted to go outside; she wanted to have an adventure. He covered her eyes with his hands and led her outside. Rose felt the smooth, dips of the ground and she could tell they were on sand and there was the smell of water, not salt water, but pond water? What? Pond water? She stumbled as she thought and the Doctor caught her, uncovering her eyes to the world around them and he cursed quietly. She looked up at the looming white wave, waiting for it to crash down on her, but nothing happened.

"It's in suspended animation." The Doctor explained, "There was a storm and the air frequency was just right and there was just enough moisture and electricity in the air that they were frozen indefinitely." He looked straight into her eyes and she blushed for no reason.

"So where are we then?" she asked shuffling her feet in the sand. She looked up and gasped as she saw a deep velvety purple, speckled with little dots of silver and gold.

"Woman Wept." The Doctor spoke so quietly that Rose almost missed it. She shivered as a bone-chilling breeze swept by. "Oh… probably should get some blankets shouldn't I?" and with that the Doctor ran back into the TARDIS leaving Rose all alone on the beach. She sighed, and the image of her dad smiling and laughing appeared in her head. The tears were threatening to spill again and her breathing was becoming heavy and uneven. Rose slid down to sit in the soft sand as the droplets cascaded down. She squeezed her eyes tight, trying to forget, but that wasn't helping. Sob after sob shook her body, she rocked back and forth, willing the sadness to disperse. She felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked behind her. There was the Doctor smiling sadly, with a few thick blankets. She flung her arms around his neck and cried into his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and slowly her tears stopped. She looked him in the eye and he could see how much pain she was in. He should never have taken her to see her father.

"Come on. Let's see what it's like on top of one of these beauties!" the Doctor called as he ran toward the frosted foam. Rose giggled slightly as she ran to catch up with him. She grasped his hand tightly, and wished she could tell him about what was going on in her brain, about her daddy, about him… she definitely couldn't tell him about some of the dreams she had had with him in them. They usually all ended with the two of them snogging furiously… she blushed at the thought of them.

"How we gonna get all the way up there?" she asked looking up at the sculpted piece of gleaming ice framed by purple velvet. It was at least a hundred feet off the ground and it looked incredibly slippery.

"Oh… you know… the people of this planet carved a ladder into the side of the waves." He said already clambering up the precariously thin ledges. Rose just smiled and shook her head as she climbed carefully up after him. When she reached the peak of the wave, she stood looking out over thousands of waves, all frozen, all, gleaming under the two moons. Some were even taller then the wave she stood on now, some stuck up like spikes, some sloped lazily towards the beach, while others created perfect frothy tunnels. She stared out in awe of the place, "I did tell you it was fantastic." The Doctor said grinning at her turn of emotions. Rose was at a loss for words, "It's just… it's… that's just… amazing…" she breathed, bouncing on her toes.

"Careful! Don't want to fall a hundred feet do ya?" he asked as he steadied her, gripping her arm slightly, "What would your mum say? Oh, that's a bad thought… very bad thought… don't ever let me think that again, Rose!" he said, shaking a finger at her. Rose giggled and threw her arms around his waist and held on tightly.

"Thanks." She said into his chest. She could hear the comforting sound of his two hearts and she closed her eyes as he wrapped his around her too. She looked up at him, "Why did you want to take me here anyway?" she asked.

The Doctor looked down at Rose, "'Cos I knew you would like it… um, it's beautiful… it's… um, it's… uh…" he trailed off, not wanting to make Rose cry again, because the real reason he had taken her here was so that she wouldn't have to think about Pete. She smiled sadly, knowing what he hadn't said and leaned her head back into his chest. He stroked her hair and they just stood there, it felt so natural to Rose, it felt like they should do this every single day, but they didn't hug except if they got separated or something terrible had happened and something had. She felt the tears coming again, this time she had someone to comfort her from the beginning. She cried softly into his black jumper as he whispered soothing sounding things to her, it wasn't English and it didn't sound like any of the languages she had ever heard before, but it helped.

"What language was that?" she asked looking up at him with her tear stained face. A pained expression passed over his face.

"Gallifreyan." he muttered. She looked at him sadly, and held him tighter, he gave her a small smile before untangling his arms from her body and picking up the blankets, "Come on! You have to see the midnights here, simply fantastic!" he said in his Northern accent, grinning. Rose could see the sadness in his eyes and let him wrap a blanket around her before she sat down slowly on the wave. He sat down beside her, checked his watch and nodded, "Two minutes till midnight." Rose snuggled in closer to him and looked out over the frosty sea. The Doctor checked his watch again, "Now…" he whispered.

The sky lit up as if it had an electric current running through it. The purple burned away into a glowing orangey gold and the entire planet was immersed in sunset colors. The Doctor pulled out the tiny digital camera he had been hiding in his coat and looked over at Rose who was smiling with her tongue poking out, staring out across the water. He stole the moment and took a quick photo, thankful that the camera made no sound and wasn't on flash, then he tucked it back into that hidden pocket and watched as the sky faded back to its original deep purple.

Rose turned to face the Doctor and saw him staring at her with a slight smile on his lips.

"What?" she asked, "Have I got somethin' on my face? Am I goin' blue?" she asked feeling her cheeks, they were perfectly normal. He laughed softly, "What?" she asked again.

"Nothing…" he trailed off look back at the sky. She slapped him playfully on the arm and leaned her head on his shoulder. Rose breathed in the crisp chill air and sighed, it was perfect. That moment was perfect, she would suspend it in time, just like the waves and stay there forever with the Doctor, she would never leave him, never. With this in her mind Rose closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep.

The Doctor scooped the bundled up Rose into his arms and slowly mad his way down to the beach where the TARDIS was waiting for them. He looked at Rose's face, she looked peaceful and happy, unlike how she had about an hour ago. He smiled and fumbled with his TARDIS key, finally managing to open the doors and step inside. He kicked the door shut behind him and immediately sauntered off to Rose's room. He pulled back her comforter and lay her down gently, pulling the blanket back up to her chin. He watched as she sneezed with her eyes closed, mumbled and then flew back to her imagination. He smiled knowing that Rose wasn't as sad now, but he would never be able to cure this, it was impossible for anyone to cure the pain of loosing someone you love and he knew this all to well.

Before his mind could stop him he leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips, she was sleeping beauty and he was a Time Lord, he wasn't any prince, or at least he didn't think that Rose thought of him in that way. The Doctor sighed as he trudged to the library and plopped down heavily in his big winged armchair and stared at the fire, deep in thought. He leaned back meaning to close his eyes for about a minute.

oO*Oo

Rose woke up and looked at the clock 5:30 am. She wiped her eyes and checked again, she was never up this early, but she wasn't tired so she pulled herself out of bed and slogged her way to the kitchen, where she pulled out her favorite type of cereal and poured herself a bowl and a mug of Earl Grey tea. With cup and bowl in hand, she headed to the library where she found the Doctor conked out in his armchair. She smiled, knowing the situation well, many times had she found her mum doing the same on the couch or the recliner, even she had fallen asleep at the kitchen table.

She plucked a Harry Potter book, hoping it wasn't the fifth, off of the shelves and sunk into the couch. She opened to the first page and leapt right into _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_. She heard the Doctor grunt something, but ignored it and spooned another mouthful of cereal into her mouth. She was lost in the adventure of finding horcruxes and Polyjuice Potion, it reminded her of her own adventures with the Doctor. She smiled and looked up at the armchair to find that the Doctor was awake and staring at her again. She shook her head and sipped at the warm tea, diving back into her book. She felt the other side of the couch lower as the Doctor joined her. Rose looked up with tears in her eyes, she had just found out the Dobby died and she couldn't help but let the tears run down her face. The Doctor her to his side and hugged her, trying to comfort Rose. She slipped her arms around his neck, she knew that Dobby was only a character, but it was like loosing her absolute best friend.

"I know. Dobby was one of my favorite characters too…" he whispered softly in her ear. Her tears slowed and she looked him in the eye.

"Thanks for last night…" she said looking down. She wasn't sure why she was blushing, but she was. She felt the Doctor kiss the top of her head and she felt she needed more, before he knew what hit him, Rose grabbed his jacket and kissed him hard on the lips, then bolted from the library, not bothering to take her tea, empty bowl, or book with her.

The Doctor sat on the couch with a dazed expression and a fuzzy mind; he was in shock. As soon as he shook away the dazed feeling he ran to Rose's room and rapped on the door.

A muffled, "Don't come in!" came from inside and he could tell that Rose was hiding under her covers. He sighed and slumped down to sit in the frame of the door.

oO*Oo

Rose sat huddled under her covers, trying to forget what she had just done, but she couldn't shake it out of her head: she had kissed the Doctor. Sure it was all spur of the moment, but it was still a kiss, lips touched lips. She moaned, why did she kiss him? She had had the nagging feeling at the back of her head that she liked him as more then a friend or a brother, but she never would have done this.

She felt something nudge her mind and she heard the familiar sound of the TARDIS singing. The TARDIS gave a sound that almost sounded like a naughty laugh and then pulled up a video. Rose watched; she saw the Doctor set her down in her bed and then kiss her. Wait… he kissed her? Her mind was overflowing with confusion as she tried to work out what was happening.

She opened her door and almost tripped over the Doctor's legs as she ran out. He steadied her and stood up, looking her in the eye. Rose pulled his head to hers crashing her lips to his, she surprised him again, and it took him a minute to react, then he wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her back. She broke away and darted back into her room, locking the door behind her. She jumped onto her bed and giggled.


End file.
